Ex-Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted she is considering leaving her homeland for London due to the amount of scrutiny she faces.

Sturgeon, 55, who resigned from Bute House in March 2023 and is preparing to step down from Holyrood ahead of next year's election, admitted that she adores the English capital despite campaigning for Scottish independence for decades.

The former SNP leader said: “I belong in Scotland, it’s my home, but I think being physically out of Scotland for a period might just help to reset my perspective and to be more selfish about it, just remove me a little bit from that kind of goldfish bowl scrutiny that I still live under in Scotland.

“I don’t mean that as a complaint, it’s just the reality that Scotland is quite a small country and it’s quite a small body politic and sometimes I just have to breathe the wrong way and somebody’s writing a story about it.”

Sturgeon added: “It does sometimes feel very, what’s the word I’m looking for, suffocating is maybe putting it too strongly, but I feel sometimes like I can’t breathe freely in Scotland.

“So maybe not abroad, but you know England, I love London and England is not yet a foreign country, would never be a foreign country obviously, even when we’re independent.”

The Glasgow Southside MSP later admitted that she is already spending a significant amount of time in London, particularly as she embarks on promoting her new tell-all memoir, 'Frankly'.

Sturgeon's support for civic nationalism also sparked criticisms that the SNP was promoting "anti-English" sentiment.

Nicola Sturgeon outside No10, Downing Street

The then-First Minister faced particular fury in 2022 when anti-Tory protesters descended on Perth to demonstrate against an organised hustings between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Following chaotic scenes outside the venue, senior Scottish Tory MSP Sandesh Gulhane said: “Nicola Sturgeon says she wants a respectful debate and then comes out and says Westminster are treating us like something on the sole of their shoe.

“Everything she’s doing is to inflame her base, simply because, let’s be honest, they’re not delivering.

"So they’re whipping up their base, they’re whipping up anger and hatred.

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Demonstrators from pro-independence organisation All Under One Banner take part in a "emergency demonstration" in Glasgow, against the Prime Minister, calling for the "end of Tory rule" and "independence now"

“And look, it’s racist. They hate the English. That is the definition of racism.

“You’re hating a group of people based upon a characteristic.”

Sturgeon was also blasted after it emerged that a local SNP branch had taken to social media to accuse England of being "murderous", "predatory", "cruel" and "oppressive".

However, the ex-SNP leader has been known to condemn anti-English sentiments north of the border.

Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking to media in Edinburgh following her announcement that she will not seek re-election to Holyrood next year

Sturgeon condemned Scottish football fans after footage emerged showing a group chanting “if you hate the f**king English, clap your hands”.

She said: “I would abhor and condemn unreservedly any anti-English chants just as we would as Scots not want to hear that coming from fans of any other country about us.

“Racism, xenophobia, anything like that whether it’s in a football context or life generally is not to be tolerated.”

But Sturgeon’s decision to admit that she would consider relocating to London comes as part of a wider tour to promote her new memoir.

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"Yes" and "No" voters protest as John Prescott and Alistair Darling join the Scottish Labour Battle Bus on Rutherglen main street

The ex-Scottish First Minister, who will leave Holyrood after spending 27 years as an MSP, has already discussed her dislike for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, rumours surrounding her sexuality and the police raid that resulted in the arrest of her and her now-former husband Peter Murrell.

However, Sturgeon sparked fury this morning after hitting out at Harry Potter author JK Rowling in the pair’s ongoing spat about trans rights.

She said: “I know many people, probably the majority, who disagree with me on this issue, come from a genuine place.

“But there are also people, and I don't know how anybody can deny this, forces on the far-right who have weaponised this issue.”

Nicola Sturgeon

However, Sturgeon was left squirming in a separate interview after admitting that rapists “probably” forfeit the right to choose their gender.

The ex-First Minister’s record on trans rights was overshadowed when trans rapist Isla Bryson was jailed for eight years.

Sturgeon repeatedly refused to call Bryson a man at the time, later admitting: "I think what I would say now is that anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice."

She added: “I should have been much more straightforward, I wasn’t, but that’s because of the debate. We’d lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I’m partly responsible for that.”